Menu
  • News
  • About and Contact
    • About
    • Contact
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • Email updates
    • RSS feed
    • Voices from our Research
  • Events
    • Upcoming
    • Past Events (since 2015)
    • Trade for Change Workshops
    • Film screenings
    • Facebook events
  • Writing and Media
    • Writing
    • Book
    • Media
    • What Moves Us

Voices

The following represent a random sampling of voices from those activists and organizers who participated in our research project. To see more, refresh this page.  Use the tag cloud to the right to navigate by theme.

Talking – or not – about patriarchy

I26

A really sad truth...is that when you start talking about patriarchy, people shut down.

Violence and social change

I10

I think that there is a time and place for violence and it's different in different countries. I want to say that it isn't justified but, at the same time, if that is the only way that you will get your message across and that is the only way that you can change something and make the people in power listen [then you can’t dismiss it]... but it's definitely less accepted in our society then it is in other countries like in South America or even in Europe. But I think that it's a short lived activism. It's kind of like you light a fuse and then the fuse burns down, and down, and down and finally you have an explosion but after that explosion what is there? There's ash and bits of charred ground and I don't think that, in and of itself, can make lasting change. But there is a time and place for that explosion.

A new party

I16

I think there has to be a new party. I think there has to be a new communist party, that's what I think. We see that we're not able to get legislation in this province to protect workers in the workplace. We see that we have something in the order of one in eight children living below the poverty level and families not having enough food to eat. I don't think this can be solved by tinkering around the edges and sending in a social worker. We need to have some kind of spirited organization that is going to consistently fight.

Radical values

I6

I don't want to point to a specific example of an activist initiative and say that this is the guide to the future. My own feeling is that there are values that I think I'd like to see broadened to be values that people can work with. Things like solidarity, affinity, autonomy, cooperation over competition, these sorts of vague themes. And then there are various experiments with those which are sometimes inspiring, like cooperatives. Those sorts of things have those values in them.

The limits of telling a better story

I13

People on the left have this conceit that if only we explained things better to people then the scales would be lifted from their eyes and they would all realize that [the source of their problems is] really capitalism after all. That's not necessarily true….the [first] problem with [this focus on] framing is that it's simplistic….and the world isn't simple. So we rankle at the idea of simplifying things for good reasons. The second reason is that it's not an equal fight, it's not like we're both starting out from the same situation on the right and the left….they're in an open competition and….of course the right has power behind it.

Ducking for cover

I30

I think the mistake the Left makes...is when they come under attack, to duck and get defensive instead of standing up saying who they are. Like the House Committee on Un-American Activities in the States [during] the McCarthy era, there were people who ran for cover and others who stood up and defied them. Well, the people that defied them are now recognized heroes for having the guts to do that and when they did take a stand they suffered for it but it opened people's eyes.

Engaging the system

I3

I do believe that...there's not much difference between political parties that are offered to us. For example, the Conservative Party that is in power right now is so far right that it is shifting the cultural paradigm in Canada, right now, to the right, I think more than any other party has done so far and I think that's really dangerous and that affects many people concretely. All the social programs that are cut, all the policy changes that are happening at different levels, for example immigration, that has concrete immediate effect[s] on many people who are marginalized and have very little influence in our society and have a serious lack of security. So engaging with the political system that we have now in terms of achieving imperfect...short, term goals that have a concrete, immediate impact on people I think is important.

Women, power, and winning

I26

It would be about women recognizing power, women understanding that they hold that power, and that they can exercise that power, and that exercising that power can change society, can change the individual, can change the family, can change the community, can change the society. And that would look not only like women recognizing and exercising that power but the society...recognizing that that power is valid.

Reimagining development

I31

To what ends are we growing this economy? I think there's sort of three fundamental objectives of development in the twenty-first century: low carbon because of climate change, adapting to climate change, [and] reconciling some of the differences that exist within the current system. We need low carbon development and we need to create food security, energy security, and robust, resilient systems that people will be able to provide for their needs, and provide for their families, and so on. It's pretty simple. It's not growing the economy, because that's what got us into this mess in the first place.

Property destruction and repression

I18

I love the black bloc going out and smashing corporate windows. I think that corporations perpetrate violence...as part of doing business and I think...it's totally justifiable to go and destroy their property, to act violently towards their property as a way of...shaking them up and [provoking] fear in them. But what does that do? It justifies the security state and it allows them to be even more dominant and predatory.

Share this:

  • Share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)
  • More
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

Available now!

What Moves Us: The Lives and Times of the Radical Imagination

Themes

WordPress database error: [You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MariaDB server version for the right syntax to use near '-testimonial-category ON posts.ID = tr_easy-testimonial-category.object_ID I...' at line 3]
SELECT DISTINCT tt2.term_id AS tag_id FROM wp_posts as posts INNER JOIN wp_term_relationships as tr2 ON posts.ID = tr2.object_ID INNER JOIN wp_term_taxonomy as tt2 ON tr2.term_taxonomy_id = tt2.term_taxonomy_id INNER JOIN wp_term_relationships as tr_easy-testimonial-category ON posts.ID = tr_easy-testimonial-category.object_ID INNER JOIN wp_term_taxonomy as tt_easy-testimonial-category ON tr_easy-testimonial-category.term_taxonomy_id = tt_easy-testimonial-category.term_taxonomy_id WHERE posts.post_status = 'publish' AND tt2.taxonomy = 'easy-testimonial-category' AND tt_easy-testimonial-category.taxonomy = 'easy-testimonial-category' AND tt_easy-testimonial-category.term_id IN (129,174,278,163,40,192,169,289,286,88,109,134,184,288,157,279,187,6,173,200,249,209,229,159,178,101,72,183,25,287,198,180,281,156,108,280,179,196,190,176,275,199,244,197,298,285,170,277,228,276,283,162,64,185,194,189,217,274,61,293,202,301,158,290,297,111,291,195,63,69,207,182,292,295,299,8,188,284,24,296,302,193,201,191,177,282,300,172,140,294)

family alternatives colonialism unions reproduction women Communism repression hope institutions revolution oppressions alienation community control insecurity democracy class police Canada resistance housing reform work isolation communication alter-globalization cooperatives people of colour history winning resources equity patriarchy black bloc security state labour movement solidarity the state globalization electoral politics climate sectarianism immigration identity food barriers futures technology wealth privilege political parties burnout organizing capitalism violence movements strategy outreach struggle radicalism activism youth success collapse protest prisons poverty Indigenous failure marginalization intersectionality Industrial society crisis anarchism tactics relationships leadership fear ecology Zapatistas economics anger money education ideology corporations memory power imagination

Follow Us!

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on SoundcloudFollow Us on RSSFollow Us on Subscribe for email updates

Radical Imagination

Copyright 2025


I am one theme by SKTThemes.

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.